Albert Lacayo was a boy I met at college and knew peripherally. That is to say, we did not hang out together, but he knew friends of mine, so I interacted with him socially. He also lived in the same dorm I stayed in at UT, Jester Center. Because Jester housed about 6,000 students between the two towers, the floors were split loosely into areas of study. For example, I was on the Arts floor - Fine Arts, Photography, Music, RTF and Journalism students mostly.
One day Albert came up to our floor (I forget his major, but he wasn't on our floor) and joined a group of us that were hanging out and drawing or painting. He was visibly upset and started telling us about how his girlfriend just dumped him. He grabbed a brush and paper and started to paint while he told us how she met this guy and found him to be so attractive that she broke up with Albert to be with him. He told the story in about 20 minutes and when he was done, his painting was done, too. He said it depicted a woman who saw this beautiful blue man who was so dazzling that she couldn't help herself and had to be with him. The beautiful blue man has effectively torn out her boyfriend's heart, and he caused the fissure in their relationship. I immediately loved the painting, but Albert said it was "crap." I asked if I could have it, and he handed it over. I've had it ever since, that's 20 years now and I still think it's great. The symbolism is simple, but effective; even if you don't know the whole story, you can see the division of the couple and the lashing out of the man who was dumped. It is filled with the emotion of a young man's heart break.
5 comments:
It's not very big, only 8 X 10. I'll bring it by sometime - maybe after tutoring.
Albert, good to hear from you - I never post my name on my blog (long, boring story), so e-mail me at finijo@yahoo.com, so I will have your e-mail address. I tried to send you a private e-mail through your blogger acct, but was unable. Sorry for the cloak and dagger - you know how it is in witness protection (just kidding).
For some reason, I thought of Albert today so googled him and this post came up. Albert & I lived on the same floor in Jester(4E) I remember him drawing all the time. Thanks for your post and reminding me of his sweet soul & his drawings.
I am terrible about noticing comments. He was a very sweet young man :) I was in Jester West 12th floor. I always thought he belonged on that floor with us - it was the Arts floor.
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